Leaving Everything Behind
by Storming.The.Castle
Summary: It's June of 1983 and the gang is graduating and going their seperate ways. Alice is off to NYU and she thinks she is leaving everything behind. But is she really? Minor Swearing Joe/Alice


Alice Dainard sat in her bedroom on the night of June 3, 1983. It was the night before graduation. The next day, she'd be handed her diploma. She was set to attend NYU to persue her dreams of acting. She wasn't the only one heading off for college. Charles would be going to the University of Iowa for filography and cinematic studies. Cary, surprisingly, had gotten accepted to Remington College in Ohio for pyrotechnics and engineering. Preston would be attending Remington along with Cary, but he would be majoring in criminal justice and law enforcement. Martin had decided to stick alongside Cary and Preston and would be heading off to Remington College. Martin hadn't changed much over the years and would be entering his first semester undecided.

She had always known that this was going to happen, that they were going to head off on their own different ways. She had come to terms with this fact. Sure, they'd meet up back in Lillian for Christmas and Spring Break, but it wasn't the same. Leaving high school for Alice meant leaving her past behind. It meant leaving the old traditions that had grown on them during the past four years. It meant getting out of Lillian, at least for college if not for good. It meant there would be no more meeting up at the diner for a late lunch on Saturdays. It meant no more lounging around the Kaznyk house on Sunday afternoons. And, Alice was okay with it. It was just a part of growing up. She knew that Charles, Cary, Preston and Martin all planned on coming back to Lillian and living their life. She didn't though. She wanted to get out of that town. It was suffocatingly small and remote. Nothing ever happened and she was tired of the same old boredom.

There was one thing- or rather person- that she was not okay leaving behind. That person was Joe Lamb.

As the years passed since the summer of 1979, Joe and Alice had gotten closer. What do you expect to happen when he had risked his life to save hers?

Come September, when the leaves would turn a crisp orange and litter the yellowing lawns or the old, bumpy roads of Lillian, Joe would be off at Syracuse University. Joe had always been particularly talented in painting and now, he was going off to Syracuse University in the state of New York to live up to his potential. And yes, Syracuse and NYU were both in the state of New York, so she'd be closer to him than the others. But it still wasn't the same. They wouldn't be able to be with each other nearly as much as they were now.

Alice was happy for him. Really, she was. Joe didn't deserve to attend some small college in the Ohio or Iowa like the others planned to do. He didn't deserve to waste away in Lillian, Ohio for the rest of his life like the others planned to do. No, Joe Lamb was too good for this place. She just wished their dreams and goals and plans for the future didn't seperate them.

Her and Joe had quite a complex friendship. Joe had slowly become her best friend. Whenever they weren't with the gang, they were together, just the two of them. Sometimes, they would go down to the old field on the very outskirts of town. They would spend the whole day there, talking laughing, joking around, goofing off, just enjoying each others company. Sometimes, they would lay side by side and let their imaginations wander and they would try to make something out of the white puffy clouds that rolled slowly across the azure colored sky.

Almost every night, Alice would slip out of her house and ride her old, worn-down bike over to his house. Half of the time, he would be awake and sitting at his desk. His head would always be propped lazily against his one hand, his eyes intently focused on the paint brush he held in his hand, being precise with each and every stroke, each one so delicate and tony, creating darkening shades of green and red and blue. The other half of the time, he had dozed off and she found him laying across his bed, a quiet snore escaping his lips. She'd giggle and tap the window. She'd smile as she saw his eyes snap open. He'd sit up, with his hair ruffled, and she couldn't help but laugh lightly at how he looked. Each time, he'd notice her outside his window and smile, his model forgotten or all traces of tiredness erased from his face as he got up and made his way to the window, usually clambering over something that was strewn across the floor. He'd unlatch it and they'd say their hello's. She would jump up and climb through his window, being careful where she placed her feet on his desk. He'd offer her his hand to help her off the desk. She never needed his help anymore. But she took it every time.

What they did varied, depending on the night itself. Sometimes, they would just lay on the bed, doing and saying nothing, just lay there and think. Other times, they'd be sitting on the floor, talking in hushed voices and trying to hold in their laughter, for Joe's dad was unaware of this nightly ritual.

Most nights in the summer, when humidity clung in the air and the radiating stars scattered the silky black sky, Joe would bring her up to the roof. They would lay there, looking into the dark canvas that was splattered with illuminating dots of light. Sometimes, out of the corner of her eye, she would see him staring at her. She knew he watched her, studied her as she did the same to the black sheet that lay over-head. She would smile and he knew he'd be caught. Some of those nights that they spent on the roof, that's all they did. They would lay there silently, wordlessly staring and wondering, their minds wandering and meandering and whirring. Other nights, the words and smiles and laughs would fill the air, piercing the quietness that had settled over the sad excuse of a town. They could spend hours up there and not even notice until the stars started to fade and the first signs of the early morning started appearing.

When it was time to leave, Joe would walk Alice over to the window. He'd offer her his hand again. And she took it every time. She would soundlessly jump out the window. They would exchange their goodbyes before she jumped on her bike and sped down Fernwood Avenue. She knew that he watched her from his window until she turned the corner and disappeared out of his sight. She could feel his eyes on her. She knew that she would be able to feel his eyes on her in a sea of people in the middle of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Her mind flashed back to one particular night that was spent on the roof that had occured only a few months previously. It was one of those nights were she would wonder about the alien and about that summer and everything related to the subject in any way. She was laying on her back, her golden blond hair splayed out like a fan. He was laying on his stomach, his head propped in his hands, his elbows leaning against the shingles on the roof. She smiled and tilted her head back, looking at him. He didn't smile back. She flipped herself over so she was in the same position as he was, her eyes fixed on his. It was in that moment, when her blue-green eyes met his entrancing brown ones that she knew he was deep in thought.

"What's on your mind Joe?" She asked, her voice sounding like a loud echo in the silent April night.

"You don't belong here Alice." He said. He said it so simply, so easily, like it was a fact everyone knew. She tilted her head, confused. They were friends after all, right? Why would he say something like that?

"What do you mean?" She asked, confusion and hurt seeping into her voice despite her effort not to let her emotions show in her voice. And she would bet anything that her eyes held the same exact expression. Joe's eyes widened as what he had just said registered in his mind.

"No! I don't mean it like that. It's just... I mean... you don't belong here, in Lillian." He explained, his face going back to the same thoughtful, calm expression. Alice felt a rush of relief flood her veins.

"You don't either Joe." She said. And it was true. She really thought that Joe Lamb was destined to do great things. He'd saved the whole town from an alien, and had risked his life in doing so after all. Joe Lamb was too good for Lillian. Someone with his bravery, his integrity, his honor, his nobleness, his courage, his talent, his potential, his selflessness, his strength, his loyalty, someone with his heart, they certainly did not belong here in Lillian.

Joe just shrugged his shoulders. "I guess. But you're Alice Dainard." He said, sitting up with his legs crossed. Alice followed suit, even more lost.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, unsure of whether it was good or bad.

"It means you're Alice Dainard. You're too good for this town. Most of the people at Lillian High, they're going nowhere. Some aren't even going to a local community college. And you know what's gonna happen to those people? They're going to rot in this stupid so-called town, their lives passing by, and before they know it, their lives will be over and they'll have nothing to show for it. They won't have a mark to leave in this world. It'll seem as though they never even exsisted. And you? You're off to NYU for acting. Do you know how amazing that is? That someone from Lillian, Ohio will be as successful as you. It's a miracle. And the only reason this miracle is happening is because you're Alice Dainard. This town... it's not where you belong. New York, Los Angeles, that's where you belong. That's where you'll be in a few years, being a star and making movies and what not. Everybody knows it. Everybody knows that you're too good for this town. And everybody knows you're too good for the people in it. Hell, even I might end up back in this dump, but you? There's no chance. This town isn't enough for you. You're going places. You're going places nobody in Lillian has ever gone before. And... I know that in order to do that, you have to leave this all behind. You have to leave Lillian behind. You have to leave the gang behind. You have to leave the memories and traditions behind. And you have to leave me behind. But Alice... you don't belong here." He said.

She had listened to every single word. His voice dripped with honesty and truth. His eyes told that those were his real thoughts. Those thoughts had been swirling around in his head, and he had meant everything.

"I don't know if you're a hundred percent right on that... but I do know one thing. If I don't belong here, then you don't either." She said. And it was what she truly believed with every fiber of her being. Joe didn't belong here even more than her. She saw he was about to protest.

"Joe... you don't know how amazing you are, do you? Here you are, rambling on about me and how I don't belong here and how I'm too good for this town, but you don't get it, do you? You're the one who is too good for Lillian. It takes so much bravery and strength and nobleness and courage and integrity and honor and... it takes every single thing that you have to do what you did. You saved me. You saved this town. You risked yourself to save others. And you don't get it. What you did... I would never be able to do that in a million years. Nobody in Lillian would be able to do that in a million years. Only you. Only you, Joe Lamb, could do that. And you know why? Because you're Joe Lamb. Every single part of you is good. I swear, you don't really see the real you. You are everything that anyone in this town could only **wish** to be half of. You are kind and sweet and noble and brave and strong and loyal and truthful and trustworthy. Now, I could rattle through a whole list of everything that makes you too good for this place, but just trust me when I say this: Joe Lamb. You most definitely, do not belong in Lillian." She said. She had poured all of her, every bit of her into that. She had to convince him he was more than what he thought of himself, she **had **to. He nodded his head as everything she said sunk in and he thought about it, his mind processing everything. He looked back at her, his eyes connecting with hers.

"Okay. I believe you." He said. And that was that. After that night, it was known to both of them that they didn't belong in Lillian.

* * *

><p>She started thinking again, her mind racing at a thousand miles an hour. Once she goes off to NYU, she'd have made the final decision to leave it all behind. To leave Lillian behind. To leave the people in it behind- well, except Joe. To leave the traditions behind. But there was something else she'd be leaving behind. <em>Memories<em>. They'd be lost, left behind, gone forever. Of course she'd remember them for a while. But what happens after a while expires? Without the constant reminders of her memories, they'd dwindle and fade and darken and blur into distorted memories of which she could not tell which were real and which weren't.

She had so many memories she wanted to keep. One of those were the times when she and Joe would coincidentally meet up at the diner a little earlier before everyone else showed up and they could just talk. All of those nights she had spent with Joe in his room or on his roof accounted for a big chunk of the memories that she was particularly fond of. The days she spent with him in the old field, laying under the clouds laughing and smiling and talking and pointing out the fish in the whispy cloud that crawled across the sky high above them, that was a handful of them.

But there was one particular memory she **refused ** to **ever** let go of. This one memory, she **needed** to hold onto, she needed to be able to cherish it. And that was when she was scared and terrified in the dark, dank, underground tunnels, being held captive, conformed into a prisoner of an extra-terrestrial creature, who had came to her rescue but the young and noble Joe Lamb.

But she asked herself why? Why this memory? Why do you so deperately need to hold onto this memory? Why is it above the others?

Within fifteen seconds she had her answer. It was a simple, set-in-stone, cold hard fact.

Because she loved him. She loved the boy who had become her best friend. She loved the boy who had unfairly forgiven her father for what he had done. She loved the boy who had turned her into a horrifyingly real zombie. She loved the boy who got excited to show her his model train. She loved the boy who had offered her a Twizzler amongst the chaos that filled her dad's car. She loved the boy who had held onto his mother's locket in order to hold onto her. She loved the boy who let the locket go because he didn't need it anymore. She loved the boy who always seemed to find a solution to the problem. She loved the boy who always managed to remain calm, even under an alien attack. She loved the boy who had shouted her name when a derailed train cart was hurdling through the air, headed straight for where she was standing. She loved the boy who had nervously called her and pleaded her to be in their movie. She loved the boy who showed up on her front porch, script in hand, when she had told him no. She loved the boy who preferred to stay off to the side instead of being in the spotlight. She loved the boy who had become her confidant. She loved the boy who had been astonished when he found out that she actually knew he was the deputy's kid. She loved the boy who had broken into the school, just to get information on where she could possibly be. She loved the boy who was the only person to ever see her cry. She loved the boy who had risked his life to save a town. She loved the boy who had risked his life to save hers. She loved the boy who had went to save her, came to her rescue.

She, Alice Dainard, was in love with Joe Lamb. There was no way around it. There was no other answer. It was completely and utterly the pure truth.

* * *

><p>It was 2:22 AM when she slipped into her old, worn-out sneakers and tiptoed down the stairs. She eased open the door, the hinges groaning in protest. She cringed and paused, waiting to see if her dad was still asleep. After a minute, she figured she was in the clear. She quickly stepped outside, closing the door quietly behind her. She hopped on her bike. It was just like the usual routine. Only tonight wouldn't be the full of the normal chatter and laughter and smiles and star-gazing. If anything, this night would have a confession. As Alice Dainard pedaled through the old, gravelly, bumpy, pot-hole infested roads of Lillian, she couldn't get the goosebumps that covered her skin to go away, despite the summery humidity that filled the night-time air.<p>

She finally reacher her destination. The Lamb house. So far, everything had been normal. But as she laid down her bike on the dew-covered grass, she couldn't help but feel different. She felt foreign. She walked over to the window that she had become oh-so familiar with over the past four years, her hands shaking and trembling and quivering. She smiled as she say him. He was asleep, strewn across his bed carelessly, mouth agape, hair ruffled, and a gentle snore filling the otherwise quiet atmosphere. She chuckled at the sight before remembering what she was there for. She steeled herself and took a deep breath before raising her pale hand and tapping gently on the window three times. Immediately, his eyes snapped open and he sat up, rubbing his eyes. She chuckled at his out-of-sorts hair. He looked at the window and noticed her. He smiled and got up walking towards the window. He unlatched and smiled at her.

"Hey. You do know graduation's in a few hours, right?" He asked teasingly. She gave an empty smile.

"Yeah, I know."

"What's wrong?" He asked. He could read her like a book.

"I have to tell you something." She said. Her voice leaked seriousness and her eyes probably showed it too. He nodded and wordlessly offered her his hand. She climbed through the window and stepped on his desk, taking his hand before landing on the carpeted floor with a soft _thud_. Joe switched on the lamp near his window and sat on the bed, leaning back slightly against his hands. Alice sat next to him, fidgeting with her hands in he rlap, her head bent down and her eyes intently focused on them as if her life depended on it.

"Well, I couldn't sleep. I was thinking. About college and all that. Remember how a few months ago, you told me I don't belong here? And you told me that I have to leave everything behind, Lillian, the people here, the traditions and all that? Well, there's something you forgot. When I leave, I have to leave the memories. These past four years have been amazing. I don't want to leave them behind. But, then my mind started thinking of all the memories that I really want to hold onto, like, the ones that I just can't let go of. And... they were all about you." At this point, she paused and turned slightly, looking into his eyes. And it's in that moment, when her nervous and uncertain ones lock with his confused and calm ones that she finds that extra push to give her the courage to confess.

"And I started thinking. I asked myself, "What's the number one memory you want to keep?" And it ttok me two seconds to figure out which one. You remember **that** summer? You saved me? Well, the memory that I would keep, would be when I woke up in the tunnel, and you were sitting next to me. I still remember everything so clearly. Your eyes, they were full of worry and concern. But then you saw that I was okay and I was awake and they instantly changed to happy and... relieved. And, I asked myself, "Why that memory. Out of all the ones you have to choose from, why that one?" And it just hit me." She said. She looked deep in his eyes. Once she admitted her feelings, they would always be known. It would be out there for him to know. She wouldn't be able to go back and erase them. But, looking in his eyes, she knew she had to do this. She had to say it.

"I love you Joe Lamb." She said. It was barely audible, in such a hushed and whispered tone. The words registered in his mind and it showed on his face as the reality of those five words sunk into his thoughts. His face showed complete shock. But it changed to something else. It was a look Alice had seen before, just not on Joe. She couldn't quite put her tongue on it, but she defintiely knew what it was.

The next thing she knew, her cold lips were on his warm ones and everything else just faded into the background. Nothing mattered except for the two of them, sitting in the dim glow of the lamp, sitting on his bed. Joe Lamb was kissing her, Alice Dainard. And it was everything she had hoped and imagined and dreamed that it could ever possibly be. Four whole years of love and lust and passion and emotion was all poured into that one kiss. It was almost magical in a sense. Alice wanted to freeze that moment and stay in it forever.

Joe broke the kiss first. Alice was disappointed at first, but then she realized how breathless she had become. She tried to breathe in as much air as she could. He was just smiling goofily. She was prettty sure she had the same expression.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that." He said. She laughed, feeling as though the past ten minutes or so were a dream. It all felt so surreal. She stood up and made her way to the window, Joe right behind her. Just as she was about to hop on the desk, she felt Joe grab her shoulder and spin her around. She looked up at him as he looked down at her.

"I love you too Alice Dainard." He said. And only Joe, only Joe Lamb could make her feel like this. Only Joe Lamb could speak six words and make her heart turn into that of a hummingbird and her legs feel like Jell-o and her thoughts all feel tangled up inside her head and she feels like everything is a dream. He smiles and leans down to kiss her once more. It's a soft, quick kiss, but it's perfect for Alice. She smiles and she finally knows that expression that was in his eyes and that still is. It's love. As cliche and sappy as it is, he loves her and she loves him. She smiles and takes his hand.

"Goodnight Joe." She says, hopping out the window.

"Goodnight Alice." He replies. She hops on her bike and she speeds up the road. She feels his eyes on the back of her neck and this time, she turns around and he's standing in the window, the same big goofy, love-struck expression spread across his face. He lifts his arm up and waves lazily. She tops her bike, one foot one the pedal, one on the pavement, and she waves back before turning around again and pedaling around the corner.

* * *

><p>She quietly sneaks back into her house and up the stairs and into her bedroom. Her clock read 3:03 AM. She plopped down on her bed, the old matress squeaking with the weight of her body, but she could careless if her dad wakes up. Fortunately though, he doesn't. And she just can't get to sleep because this feeling inside her keeps bubbling up and she wants to scream and cry and run around in circles. Suddenly, college is a small concern for her. Leaving everything behind is a small worry. Because no matter what, from now on, she'll always have Joe. She just knows she'll always have him. They're both destined for great things. Wherever she's going, he's coming with her. It's a package deal. And Joe is that reminder that she needs. He's Lillian, and the gang, and the people of Lillian, and the traditions, and the memories all wrapped up into one person. And she loves him and he loves her and that's really all that matters in the end.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Okay, I KNOW that I have tons of other stories I should be updating instead of writing this, but I got inspired. I'm sorta really proud of this too. So, review and tell me if you think I should be proud or not. The last half might not be as good because MY COMPUTER IS EVIL! It took me, like 3 HOURS to wrote this, and I didn't save the second half, and my computer shut down. So it's midnight, I have school in the morning, and here I am, writing this for you guys! AND, I STILL HAVE HOMEWORK. SO REVIEW!<strong>

**DISCLAIMER- I DON'T OWN SUPER 8 OR ANY COLLEGES MENTIONED**


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